The films of Pedro Almodovar have demonstrated great crossover appeal in their ability to attract both mainstream and marginal audiences and to command critical as well as commercial success. The contributors to this anthology of critical essays seek, through close readings of the director's 10 feature films, to analyze the multiple contexts of Almodovar's phenomenal international success. This volume offers a corrective to the glib approaches that have dominated previous discussions of Almodovar's films, which have treated them, on the one hand, as simply the latest contribution to the travel poster image of passionate, romantic Spain, or, on the other, as historical joyrides through the global pop culture scene. As the first comprehensive study of Almodovar's cinema to be published in North America, the book is also noteworthy for the range of critical and theoretical methodologies that the contributors bring to the study of his works. Drawing upon disciplines that run from psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, film and media studies, and cultural theory to the empirical study of audience response, the authors nevertheless share a concern to illuminate the specifically Spanish context of the director's films. While this volume serves the important function of introducing American audiences to post-Franco Spanish culture, it also pursues the complementary goal of projecting contemporary Spain into the critical debate on the forms and functioning of postmodern culture and society.

Intended to 'relate my experiences to the background of my period and to portray incidents in the life of a woman born in the last quarter of the nineteenth century', Edith Morley's 1944 memoir, Before and After, was written a few years after retiring as the first female professor at an English university. Born into a middle-class Victorian family, she hated being a girl, but a forward-thinking home life and a good education enabled her to overcome prejudices and become Professor of English Language at University College, Reading, in 1908. An early feminist with a strong social conscience, she 'fought...with courage...and passionate sincerity for human rights and freedom.' Covering the vividly described setting of her late Victorian childhood, her student days with the increasing freedoms they brought, the early feminist movement, the growing pains of a new university and, much later, the traumas endured by refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, this absorbing memoir brings alive a very different era, one foundational to the freedoms we enjoy today.

Little Old Ladies don't just happen--they are created by default. The road to little old lady-hood starts early in mid life but if a well thought out plan of prevention is in place, midlife women can keep and improve their current level of youthful attributes for at least another 25 years. One reason most women don't achieve their desired degree of agelessness is because the traditional retirement oriented senior culture does not support growth and productivity. The negative power of the senior culture is something few women are aware of, and nobody talks about it...until now. This aging influence in the lives of older women has finally been "outed" and you must discover what it's all about and how to avoid it in No More Little Old Ladies!

This is THE book for pre-retired women who don't want to become traditional seniors. It is for healthy women who want to continue to grow and be productive in their mature years.

A collaboration between Native activists, professionals, and scholars, Re-creating the Circle brings a new perspective to the American Indian struggle for self-determination: the returning of Indigenous peoples to sovereignty, self-sufficiency, and harmony so that they may again live well in their own communities while partnering with their neighbors, the nation, and the world for mutual advancement. Given the complexity in realizing American Indian renewal, this project weaves the perspectives of individual contributors into a holistic analysis, providing a broader understanding of political, economic, educational, social, cultural, and psychological initiatives. The authors seek to assist not only in establishing American Indian nations as full partners in American federalism and society, but also in improving the conditions of Indigenous people worldwide, while illuminating the relevance of American Indian tradition for the contemporary world facing an abundance of increasing difficulties.